By Alex Watkins (News Editor) – Email
Literature enthusiasts and aspiring writers at UFV were in for a treat on Thursday, March 22 when Fraser Valley-based authors Deborah Campbell and Andrea Schroeder paid a visit to UHouse as a part of the “Where are they now?” English department reading series. Hosted by UFV’s Writer in Residence Elizabeth Bachinsky, the event featured not only live readings from each author’s works but also a first-ever peek at sections of their unpublished manuscripts.
Deborah Campbell – the first to speak to the attendees – was raised in Abbotsford, and attended UFV for her first year after graduating from the Mennonite Educational Institute. It was here that she was introduced to T. S. Elliot and began exploring the power of language; Campbell also found interest in Psychology (namely the question of why exactly people do what they do), and in Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist philosophy. She eventually moved to Paris to study French literature before beginning her foray into places like Iran, Lebanon, Cuba, and Russia – where for the last ten years she has “explor[ed] the intersection between people and politics by immersing herself in the societies she covers.”
Campbell read a passage from her work “This Heated Place: Encounters in the Promised Land,” which focuses on her observations and experiences traveling through conflict-ridden Israel. Just as fascinating as her contact with a Christian Peacemaker Team – whose motto “getting in the way” reflects their approach of taking the same kind of risks in their nonviolent peacemaking that others do in war – was her explanation of the many precautions she takes to minimize the risk of having her research become confiscated and/or used to incriminate those who help her. Campbell told curious attendees that she only explains to her contacts who she is and what she is doing in person, noting that the sad part is “people generally understand this” immediately in countries where citizens are closely watched.
Additionally, Campbell gave readers a taste of her unfinished novel about her experience living among Iraqi refugees, which she termed “a political travel book among the lost.” Highlights from Campbell’s extensive list of achievements included writing for Harper’s, holding an associate editor position at Adbusters, and winning three national magazine awards.
Next to share was “inveterate raconteur” Andreas Schroeder, who read a passage from his latest book “Renovating Heaven” – a pseudo-autobiographical account perhaps best described on the cover itself, which explains: “In more forgiving times, these stories might have been described as entirely autobiographical. However, given today’s more stringent standards—not to mention Schroeder’s enthusiastic dedication to all the elements of effective storytelling (or, as his siblings would have it, “inclination to rampant lying and exaggeration”)—Schroeder has raised the white flag and called these stories ‘a novel’.”
For background, Schroeder detailed his Mennonite family’s journey from Prussia to Abbotsford in 1950, where they became “indentured servants” to a local farmer for two years to pay off their passage. They eventually bought a house in Agassiz and founded an “illegal and informal” Mennonite church where his “old school” grandfather delighted the congregation with three-hour sermons. Schroeder’s teasing wit had the audience laughing throughout.
The author also shared segments of his unpublished manuscript for “Motorcycle Meditations: Reflections on a Life of Motorcycling”; he cited this vehicle as a key element of the three things every rebellious Mennonite needs: a set of wheels, a girlfriend that you don’t have to take to church, and access to unlimited amounts of Molson X. Schroeder has been awarded an honorary doctorate from UFV, and has been nominated for several awards, including the 2009 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (for “Renovating Heaven”) and the Governor-General’s Award.
